Why are shops not filled at the prime festival time

E-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, along with brick-and-mortar stores, are seeing sluggish sales this festive season despite aggressive discounts.

Sales across online and offline retail have been unexpectedly slow this festive season, baffling sellers who were optimistic given India’s rising purchasing power in smaller towns and rural areas.

The online service business sites Amazon, Flipkart etc. kick started the sale season this year like the preceding years.

The sluggish response wasn’t expected close to the month long autumnal festivals. The huge discounts, various offers weren’t enough to grab the attention of the customers.

The same scenario is in the physical retail stores and shops. The less footfalls have left the shopkeepers and vendors wondering about their forthcoming strategies to attract more buyers.

The economic boom in recent years has decentralized from the metropolitan area and reached India’s heartland. The purchasing potential of the people residing in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 along with the rural areas is on a continuous ascent. The share of these areas in the sales on the e-commerce sites have risen to about 80%.

After such a constructive environment why have sales slumped down. There might be diverse reasons for the change of priorities of the masses.

The large retail sector and the e-commerce sites keep filling and refilling latest trend stocks. This leads to off-time spending on products whose need is distinctly possible in the near future.

Now, shopping is no longer a festival-affair. Due to larger availability of options people keep buying when the need arises.

Everyone wants to shop without facing the tedious traffic jams, crowd and this acts as another prominent reason why people avoid shopping at prime time.

The erratic weather changes and the political unrest giving rise to bandhs, rallies too affect the active participation of consumers and thus mar the momentum to the retail demand.

People have found other ways to use their disposable income. As compared to earlier times, small town people too have begun to invest in holidays at far and near destinations.

In spite of the slow and usually depressing sales, the retailers and shopkeepers are still holding hope for the better response during the ongoing festival season.